Excel Tricks: Use Custom Data Entry to Avoid Input Errors

If you need to enter specific information for lots of different variables, mistakes can (and often do) occur all too frequently. One way to reduce such errors is by creating drop-down lists, allowing you to choose the right code or number for each entry without having to type the values in over and over.

Such drop-down choices simplify entering information like product codes, and speed up your workflow. Because no one wants to play one-of-these-is-not-like-the-other inside Excel.

Just to recap:

1. Enter the values you’d like to have in a drop down on a separate Excel sheet

2. Select the area you want to put the data

3. Navigate to the data tab, and select the “Data Validation” option from the “Data Validation” drop-down menu

4. Select “List” on the Allow menu

5. For the source, select the values you entered in step one, and click “OK”

6. Congratulate yourself on becoming a more productive worker.

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